1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transfer mechanism that transfers a transfer body across inside and outside of a device body using a transfer tray and, more specifically, to a transfer mechanism that performs loading/unloading of the transfer body by directing the transfer tray in a first direction, and houses the transfer body inside of the device body by directing the transfer tray in a direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction, a transfer device using such a transfer mechanism, and an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical disks have been previously popular with CDs (Compact Disks), DVDs (Digital Versatile Disks), BDs (Blue-ray Disks), magneto-optical disks such as MO (Magneto Optical Disks) and MD (Mini Disks), and others. To be compatible with such disks and disk cartridges, various types of disk drive device have appeared in the market.
The types of disk drive device are of directly loading a disk to a turntable visible from an open lid or cover of a chassis, of automatically loading a disk onto a turntable inside of a chassis when a disk tray carrying thereon the disk is retracted in a horizontal direction from the chassis, of directly loading a disk on a turntable equipped to a disk tray of such a type, of automatically loading a disk on a turntable only by an insertion of the disk from a disk insertion/removal port provided to the side surface of a chassis, i.e., slot-in type, and others.
The problem of a disk drive device specifically of retracting in a horizontal direction a disk tray carrying thereon an optical disk is that the device body is required to have a length at least equal to or longer than the diameter of the optical disk in the direction along which the disk tray is moved to slide. This is because the sliding movement of the disk tray in the horizontal direction transfers the optical disk across an insertion/removal position and a recording/reproduction position. At the insertion/removal position, the optical disk is inserted or removed, and at the recording/reproduction position, the optical disk is subjected to recording or reproduction of information signals. As such, with disk drive devices and electronic devices in which a disk tray slides in the depth direction of the device body, the depth dimension of the device body is required to be larger than the diameter of an optical disk. Therefore, even with a monitor device or others having been favorably reduced in thickness, once it is incorporated with such a disk drive device, the resulting monitor device turns out to have the thickness equal to or smaller than 12 cm, which is the diameter of a general optical disk.
As an example, refer to Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2003-85861).